The organizations will build the HITRUST Cyber Threat Management and Response Center to go beyond collecting and distributing threat data, such as indicators of compromise (IOC), by offering resources to help stakeholders better understand the data and react to it to mitigate a cyber threat.

“What is new is having stakeholders spend time trying to enhance collection and dissemination of IOCs, but what has been lost is that information sharing must be part of an overall threat management strategy or there is no value,” says Daniel Nutkis, CEO at HITRUST.

His organization detected the WannaCry and Petya ransomware viruses nearly two weeks before healthcare organizations were affected, yet many provider organizations were unable to effectively understand and use the information, he adds.

The new response center will support access to millions of additional sensors from Trend Micro that collect indicators of compromise, with quicker and more detailed analysis of threats, access to more healthcare-specific threat information, new resources to support community engagement and assistance, and enhanced tracking and monthly reporting of cyber threats.

As healthcare organizations mature in their cyber capabilities, they will require more information on security methods and best practices.

In short, HITRUST needed more assistance to identify and communicate threats. The organization has a handful of threat researchers, while Trend Micro has thousands. “We need additional analytical capabilities, and partnering was the best approach,” Nutkis adds.

Trend Micro has 52 million sensors sniffing out cyber threats, getting information to consumers quicker and can help HITRUST create new ways to deliver threat information to different types of organizations in a manner that all organizations can understand. Trend Micro gives HITRUST scale and reach.

HITRUST offers several basic cyber protection services and education for free for a set number of users. As organizations add more users they start to pay for the services based on the number of users. Basic access to the HITRUST CTX that collects and distributes threat information is free and will continue to be, and basic access to the new Cyber Threat Management and Response Center also is free.

The response center will be available on October 1. Under the partnership with Trend Micro, HITRUST users can submit suspicious code and other indicators of compromise to HITRUST’s threat management center that includes Trend Micro personnel, and the code will be reviewed at no cost.